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New York YankeesThe New York Yankees... what can we say? We are as about "anti-yankee" as the next baseball fan that doesn't come from the Bronx... but we just can't find an objective method to NOT predict they will repeat in 2010. (Click here if you were looking Jeter and his cleats) In fact, as we allude to below, our projections were made before the Yankees aquired Javier Vasquez from the Atlanta Braves. We wax lyrical about bad this trade was for the Braves on their page.... so we'll just drop it here. Once we include this trade in the spreadsheet, the New York Yankees are safely ranked the best team in baseball. Before the trade there was a question of the Philles- but, no longer. Let's just say it will take the rest of the League years to recover from that infamous 2008/09 off-season when the Evil Empire returned to its competition skewing ways....
Cleats-Info RatingsAmongst the 30 Teams we had the Yankees rated as follows before the Vazquez trade (in parentheses we show what happens when we plug that deal in): Overall: 2nd (now 1st) Starting Pitching: we had them at 16th, at that point as the 4th and 5th holes in the rotation looked like weaknesses.(With the trade inclused they are rated 2nd in this department). Relief Pitching: 3rd Position Players: 2nd In all the years we have been using our spreadsheet to analyse the MLB, we have never had a team ranked in the top 3 in each of the key categories. We are basically projecting "dominance" from a Yankee fan perspective and "boredom" from the perspective of the rest of the league.
Position PlayersA large chunk of last year's spending spree, both physically and financially, 
Mark Teixeira finally lived up to expectations after a disappointing April and May.He finished the season with 39 homers and and on base plus slugging of .943. At 29, he is just entering his prime, which is why the New York Yankees locked him up in 2008 for 8 years with $180 million.
At second base, Robinson Cano put up some of his best numbers since 2006, last year. He hit a career high 25 dingers while batting .320. At 27, he still has upside potential, and may wind up being the next great New York Yankee "homegrown".He bounced back after a rather disappointing 2008 campaign, which should be encouraging for Yankee fans.
Speaking of great homegrowns, future hall of famer and team captain, Derek Jeter hits 35 this year and thus represents a bit of a question mark in 2010. That said, this is what we thought when he turned 34- and all he did outprrfome his career stats in nearly every offensive category, on his way to his 5th World Series win. He even stole 30 bases.... so much for slowing down. Still we expect some decline in 2010, especially year on year.... but there is lot of room for decline before the guy stops performing at All Star level. What is especially encouraging for New York Yankees fans was his gold-glove performance in the field. Going into 2009, we were reading of concerns about his lateral movement. Thos concerns never really panned out. Some pundits are pointing to this being a contract year for Jeter... yeah right, like the face of the New York Yankees since 1996 is going to finish his career anywhere besides the Bronx.
At just a year younger than Jeter, Alex Rodriguez may also represent some of a decline risk in 2010. But again he has a rather long slope to slide down before he becomes any sort of liability at third base.The big news about A-Rod in 2009 was that his perfomance in the post-season got the "choker" monkey off his back. In our book that brand was more of a myth anyways... the guy is a lifetime .302 post-season hitter, he just had two bad play-offs in 2005 and 2006.
But at 38 years old, we expect him to get a lot off days or DH duties in 2010- with Franco Cervelli serving as Posada's number two- and getting a lot more at bats this season- we expect back stop to be the only position in the infield to see any material offensive decline in 2010. That said,Cervelli did over .280 whan both Posada and Jose Molina went down last May.
In what has to be chalked up to pure mis-communication, the New York Yankees appeared to have snubbed Johnny Damon this off-season, and thus will have to settle for a downgrade in the outfield next season.35 year old Randy Winn is coming off the worst campaign of his career in 2009, which saw him log a paltry .268 batting average. Winn only hit.158 against leftys, so we would expect Bret Gardner to get a few more at bats this season. But he doesn't have much pop either.
Unfortunately, Granderson also striggled against southpaws 2009.... maybe left-handed pitching represents a chink the New York Yankees armor.... But we like Granderson anyways, it will only be interesting to see how he adjusts to coming from Detroit to the New York pressure-cooker.
In spite of batting only .249, Nick Swisher wrung a respectable .371 on base percentage off American League pitching last year via 97 bases on balls. That represents a rather typical season for Swisher and coupled with the 25 dingers he logged the New York Yankees, they must have no regrets about signing him alongside the other monster free agents locked up in the 2008/09 offseason. Swisher has some upside potential for 2010. He didn't perform very well in the New Yankee Stadium, we could expect that to change as he gets used to the heat....
Starting PitchingNot sure why it didn't get more press, but the Braves/ Yankees trade of Melky Cabrera for Javier Vazquez is, in our opinion, one of the bigger New York Yankee thefts in recent memory.Before that we saw some definite weakness in the back end of the rotation- enough weakness to possibly make the AL East a competitive race this season...not anymore. 
Starting from the top and working our way down the rotation, CC Sabathia lived up to his $161 million, seven-year billing in 2010. As a Brewer fan I hate to admit it, but hey, it's true. After getting his lunch ate through his first three appearances of the season, CC settled in to log a 3.35 ERA and notch 19 wins with 8 losses. He also pitched 230 regular season innings, which actually must of felt easy for him after the way us Brewers used him going down the stretch in 2008! The only question is how many more 230+ innings seasons does the 30 old southpaw have in him? We reckon at least a few more yet. Along with CC, the Yankess had enough budget to sign another deal with a first-nameless picther, AJ Burnett, in 2008/09. He is probably our least favorite New York Yankee at the momement- value for money he ranks way below Andy Petite, and we can't understand why he whines so much about catcher, Jorge Posada. The best thing about Burnett is that he is a good excuse to to give the 38 year old back stop some days off....Other than that,$82.5 million over five years, is way too much to pay for a 4.02 ERA and a pitchger who often struggles to find the strike zone. In fact, such a deals would destroy most mid-market teams
(such as the San Franciso Giants and Barry Zito).
...but these are the New York Yankees.
Last year he had a 4.18 ERA with a 14-8 record and is probably the best financial deal in the Yankees starting rotation for 2010. We mentioned Javier Vazquez above. The deal with Atlanta solved a large issue in our opnion. Before the trade, the New York Yankees were going to fill the fourth and fifth slots in the rotation with any two of a number of guys that are just supposed to be good, but we just don't know why. If you know what we mean.... Between Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Sergio Mitre, the New York Yankees should be able to scrape together a fifth man of the rotation. Joba seems the most likely candidate for the spot. If two out of three of this bunch had to step up, we believe the Yanks would have been less than super-human in 2010. But that won't be the case thanks to the Vazquez/Cabrera deal.
Relief PitchingHowever those three competing for the the fifth spot in the starting rotation, also combine to help build a remarkably deep bull-pen.Chamberlain, Hughes and Mitre, as potential starters- also leave the New York Yankees with plenty of options at long relief- and ways of bridging from a world class starting rotation to
At 41, we have been predicting a decline for Rivera for so long that it is embarassing, so this year we just won't. Hey, the old git only has to work 60 to 70 innings a season, so why not? Last year he converted 42 of 44 save opportunities while posting his 6th career sub-1.00 WHIP. Prototype closer, nuff sed. If Rivera does falter, David Robertson could provide adequate cover in the closer role. PredictionWe expect the New York Yankees to win the World Series in 2010.KeysThe only real key we can find, is resolving some team hitting weakness versus leftys. Other than that only a plague could stop this team in 2010.Leave New York Yankees and return to American League Predictions.
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Limited to only 58 games in 2008, Jorge Posada put any "recovery" concerns aside with one the best offensive campaigns of his career in 2009. 
Moving on to one of our favorite New York Yankees, we were glad to hear that Andy Pettite is coming back for another season in 2010. At $5.5 million, the 38 year old is giving a substantial home-town discount to stay with the New York Yankees. 
